If you lead a busy life, common advice on how to create balance might include cutting out what's least important, becoming more efficient, or adding relaxing activities to counteract your busyness.

This is helpful advice. However, I've also found that no matter how much balance we try to create in our external lives, it's really how we feel on the inside that counts. We need to feel balanced, grounded, and well within our inner world before we can genuinely feel at ease.

To achieve this, you need to make a shift. Instead of slowing things down in your external life (with the intention of influencing how you feel internally), start slowing down internally, and see how it influences your external life.

This is living from the inside-out. It's about being present in the moment and conscious of what's going on for you at all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically and spiritually.

Living from the inside-out helps you embody your experiences fully and live with greater awareness. Conversely, when you're living from the outside-in, you're likely spending a lot time caught up in thinking, which only exacerbates your busyness.

When you allow your inner world to guide your outer world, you're more conscious of how you are moving through each day and interacting with the world. How to do we create this shift?

For me, I have three simple steps that help me live from the inside-out and support me in feeling balanced and grounded. These are:

1. Pause.

In any moment, even when you're engaged in another activity, you can take a moment to pause. Even without physically pausing, you can mentally take a pause in your inner world. By pausing, you give yourself a chance to be present with where you are and what you're doing.

Once you've paused, consciously take a breath. It's not uncommon to hold or shorten your breathing when you're feeing busy. By taking a slow, gentle, deep breath into your belly, you can instantly create calm your body. One breath is all it takes to feel more grounded in who you are.

3. Connect.

Take a moment to sense what's going on for you. Notice your physical self, your thoughts, your emotions, and the deeper, intuitive part of who you are. Connect with your whole self, and use this connection as the platform to make a choice, communicate, or take action.

By pausing, breathing, and connecting with your whole self, you create a sense of space within who you are. This will help you slow down internally and live more consciously in the moment.

You can pause, breathe and connect at any time throughout the day. Do it regularly and you'll cultivate balance and the feeling of being grounded within you. See if you can try it now while you're reading this article!

With practice, this will be become more natural for you. Don't be surprised if you start making changes in your external life, too. Because you'll be approaching life from a place of wholeness and clarity, the choice to align your outer life with how you feel on the inside will seem easier.

By learning to slow down and create balance from the inside-out, you have the potential to transform how you live and experience each day. Explore this in your own life, and notice how different you feel within yourself and your life as a whole.